Dragon Green

by Macy Babineaux

  Brynn thought she should just run. Get up and out into the fresh air. Vander could find her once he got out of there.

  But she didn’t. Curiosity got the better of her, as it nearly always did.

  She stopped and turned, willing the question inside her own head: Who are you?

  I have no name, the voice said. Not yet. I am a fabricant, crafted by the artisans of the third plane. If you wish to meld, I can help you.

  Well that sounded terrifying. What do you mean, meld?

  There was a pause. Meld. To fuse or combine. To become one from two.

  This thing wanted to fuse with her? Again, every instinct in her body told her to stay away. This wasn’t just unprofessional, it was downright stupid.

  The shiny white surface was calling to her, just begging for her to reach out and touch the tip of her finger to it to see what would happen. The liquid actually began to ripple, then extend a tendril out toward her.

  Brynn couldn’t help herself. She reached out, extending her index finger to meet the tip of the tendril. As they grew near, she felt a little spark of static electricity.

  Then she touched it, the feeling causing her finger to tingle pleasantly.

  Meld initiating, she heard inside her mind. She moved to pull her finger back, but the liquid coursed down her finger, covering her hand like a second skin.

  No, she thought. Wait.

  But the thing that had called itself a fabricant did not wait. The liquid ball moved from where it hovered over the pyramid and slid up her arm like a glove. It felt cool and tingling across her skin, but she started to panic.

  Oh God, she thought. What did I do?

  The liquid raced up her shoulder, across the base of her neck and on her chest. She felt it thin out and move to cover her body, more quickly than she could think to react. What was she supposed to do anyway?

  Her arm was completely white, as if dipped in paint. But as she watched, the stuff disappeared in patches, absorbing into her skin. She could feel the tingling sensation moving deep into her muscles, into her blood, into her bones.

  She didn’t feel any pain. If anything, she felt invigorated. But her heart was still pounding, her mind racing at the thought that she might have just let some alien parasite take over her body.

  She felt the warmth travel up her spine, and her head flushed with a brilliant glow. Everything seemed to brighten.

  Meld complete. This time the voice felt closer. It felt like her own. Then everything went dark.

  When she woke, she was lying on the ground. Vander knelt over her, cupping the back of her neck with one of his strong hands. He was looking down into her face with worry. His other was on her chest.

  Oh God, she thought. This is how I want to wake up every day.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  That was a good question. She felt okay. Actually better than okay. She felt strong and alert. Then she remembered the substance, floating impossibly above the tip of the pyramid. She looked up and saw that it was gone. Was it really inside her now, a part of her?

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” she said, not sure if that were true. Part of her wanted to just keep lying there, letting him hold her like that. His right hand lay just above her breast, and she didn’t want him to move it. But dammit, he did, lifting it away.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  She didn’t want to tell him what she’d done. She felt foolish for letting her curiosity override every sensible instinct she’d ever had, and she didn’t want him to think any less of her.

  She sat up and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just passed out. I guess I was more tired than I thought.”

  Brynn knew it was bold of her, but just then she wanted to touch Vander’s face. She reached up and cupped his face in her hand, feeling the strong, smooth line of his jaw. He didn’t pull back, but moved into her hand, pressing his face against it.

  Vander began to lean in toward her, closing his eyes.

  This is happening, she thought. He’s going to kiss me. Then she felt sparks along her fingers and saw threads of white extend from the tips touching his jaw. He didn’t seem to notice as the tendrils sank into his skin, disappearing.

  His lips were almost to hers, but she snatched her hand away from his face and pulled back. He opened his eyes.

  “Oh,” he said. “Forgive me. I did not mean to—“

  “No,” she said, laughing nervously. What the hell was going on? She should have never touched that liquid orb. “I just feel a little…weird.”

  But if she had thought she felt strange before, what happened next only compounded the weirdness.

  Vander did not open his mouth, but she could hear his voice inside her head, more clearly than if he’d spoken out loud.

  A shame. I startled her. But I would have wished to taste her lips.

  “What did you say?” she said out loud, feeling the heat flood her cheeks.

  He looked at her like she was a little crazy. She was beginning to think she was.

  “I did not speak,” he said.

  And he was right. He did not speak. She had still heard his words. No, she had heard his thoughts inside her head. Whatever had melded with her had moved out of her fingers and inside his head, though the connection didn’t seem to go both ways.

  I should not have tried to kiss her, Vander’s voice said inside her head. No good can come of it. I must wed Nevra when I return, and this can only complicate matters.

  Brynn definitely wanted him to complicate matters. She wanted him to complicate matters with her right there on the chamber floor. But maybe he was right. And now that she had a bug inside his head, she felt even weirder about everything. Should she tell him? It would be dishonest not too, wouldn’t it?

  She started to pull herself to her feet, and Vander helped her up. She took a deep breath. She had known today was going to be interesting, but she hadn’t expected this. There was something inside her, some ancient foreign technology. She’d worry about the ramifications of that later, but the thing had formed some kind of one-way telepathic link with Vander. She needed to get that out in the open.

  “Vander,” she said. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  She saw flashes of speculation in his mind: she was married, she found him too strange to be with, or perhaps she didn’t care for men at all.

  “No,” she said, realizing she was answering his thoughts. He was looking at her intently now. “Right after we started searching this place, I—”

  A vision interrupted her, a crystal-clear image of a silver spear with three slender prongs.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “The trident,” she said, all thoughts of telling him about the fabricant and the mind-reading swept away for the moment. “I know where it is.”

  7

  VANDER

  He had almost kissed her.

  He was surprised with himself, having such strong, sudden feelings for Brynn. He would hardly have given a second glance if he had seen her across the room in a crowded banquet hall. Part of him wondered if being jolted across worlds had rattled his senses, but he knew that wasn’t right. Something had happened. She had tapped into something deep within him, something he hadn’t known was there.

  He had lived his life with no direction. Rather, he had always known the direction his life was going to go, so he simply rested upon the crest of the wave and let the water carry him. He had not expected his father to pass so soon, but when he did and the crown passed to Vander, very little had changed. The realm was at peace. The island was secluded. He had merely carried on with what he had done before: swimming, eating, and enjoying the company of consorts. Only now everyone called him king instead of prince.

  Meeting Brynn had made him realize how much he had taken for granted. She was smart and driven, single-minded in the pursuit of what she wanted. He had not even known he was looking for such a woman, but now that she was before him, he wanted her.

 
But she had pulled away when he tried to kiss her. Perhaps that had been foolish after all. They could not be together, and it was folly to play with fire.

  He had heard her cry from across the chamber and run to find her unconscious on the floor. He had knelt and cradled her neck in his hand, feeling for her heartbeat. Her pulse was there and thankfully it was strong.

  But then she had awoken and something had changed. Had she interacted with one of the dozens of strange machines in this place? Had it changed her somehow? She had answered questions aloud that he had not asked. And then she had seen the vision of the trident.

  “This way,” she said, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him toward the far side of the chamber. She led him to one of the few areas where there was nothing at all, an open space with nothing but the strange rainbow metal floor.

  “There’s nothing here,” he said, feeling foolish for stating the obvious.

  She smiled. “Oh, but there is,” she said. “A secret compartment.”

  And how do you know of it? he started to ask. But before he could, she dropped to her knees and began feeling around on the floor. Something strange was going on with Brynn, and he wanted to find out what it was. But he also badly wanted to find the trident. So while he was doubtful anything would come of it, he let her move about on the empty floor, pushing her fingers in various spots.

  “Brynn,” he said, softening his voice to make it seem as if he didn’t think her crazy. “I do not think this is going to—”

  The floor beneath the fingers of her right hand pushed down and in with a click. Vander heard a grinding noise beneath his feet, like two great iron gears gnashing against one another.

  Brynn got up and stepped back to stand beside him. “You were saying?”

  A circle of neon light appeared on the floor before them. Then the metal circle it framed began to move upwards, a glass tube rising up from beneath the floor.

  Vander could not help letting out a small gasp as he saw the three sharp silver tips within the glass, ascending to reveal a gleaming trident.

  It was encased within the glass tube, which stopped once it reached its full height, just taller than Vander. The weapon’s base was fixed in a pedestal within the tube so that it stood upright, pointing at the heavens above. The spear seemed to glow from within, making its silver surface brighter than any he had ever seen.

  “It is magnificent,” he said.

  “Yes,” Brynn agreed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  He looked at her, a bright smile on her face as she looked up at the trident. She had spent her life looking for such relics. This must be the pinnacle of her search. But he needed to take the weapon and return to his world. The thought of seeing her disappointment gave him pause, but the plight of his kingdom was at stake.

  He took a step forward and examined the glass. “How do we open it?” he asked. She had found the secret compartment. How, he still did not know. But if she knew how to do that, perhaps she knew how to open this.

  “Look,” she said, pointing to the base. Vander looked down to see an inscription written there in the ancient tongue.

  “I can read it now,” she said.

  And how was that possible? She had said she needed her machines and papers at her place of study to even partially understand the other writings. How was it that now she understood the writing of the ancients fully without any effort?

  She frowned. “This is bad.”

  “What is it?” he asked, a dozen more questions on the tip of his tongue.

  Brynn stood. Though there had been lines beneath her eyes before, fatigue from being awake for so long and piloting the carriage back out here, she no longer looked tired. Her eyes were bright and alert, but now with a pained look.

  “The inscription says that a worthy champion may open the glass and claim the trident,” she said. “I assume that’s you.”

  Then why was she worried? Did she fear he was not worthy? Or as he thought before, was she disappointed that he had to take the trident away from her?

  She saw the questions on his face before he asked them. “That’s not the problem,” she said. “At least I don’t think so. The writing also says that all this other stuff doesn’t really matter. That the primary purpose of this whole underground chamber is to house the trident. It says once the trident is claimed, the chamber will cease to be.”

  “Cease to be?” he asked. What did that mean?

  She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “But it doesn’t sound good. Maybe it’s got some kind of self-destruct mechanism.”

  As with most of what she was saying, Vander didn’t know what that meant. But he could tease apart what it might. If and when he smashed the glass and took the spear, this place would try to destroy itself? He supposed that might make sense. Whoever had hidden the weapon and these other trinkets here would probably not want the people of earth to discover them. Even though for Brynn, that was all she wanted.

  He looked at her, not sure what to do.

  “Go ahead,” she said, giving him a weak smile. “Your mission is a hell of a lot bigger than little old me.”

  His heart swelled for her. She was willing to sacrifice her life’s work to help him. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Thank you,” he said. He was happy to see her blush.

  “No problem,” Brynn said. “Just be ready to run after you grab that thing. It doesn’t say how long we have.”

  “You should leave now,” he said. “There is no need for you to take the risk.”

  She nodded and smiled again, then headed back among the displays to the tunnel up and out. He watched her go, chiding himself for letting his feelings grow for a woman he could never be with.

  He thought perhaps the rush of adventure had played with his emotions. Once he was back home, he would try to forget her. The distance between them should make that easier.

  Vander turned back to the glass casing, the brilliant trident waiting within. Brynn should be back up on the surface now.

  He curled the fingers of his right hand into a fist. Then he moved up to the glass and planted his feet. He pulled his arm back and tensed every muscle in his body in preparation for the blow.

  The gods smile upon the courageous, he thought. That was one of his father’s favorite sayings.

  Then he swung his fist forward, turning his hips to drive as much power as he could into the blow.

  Vander’s knuckles hit the glass and a bolt of pure white pain splintered up his arm. The clear material was either magic or not glass at all, because it didn’t so much as crack when he hit it. But his fist certainly did.

  He heard a sickening crunch half a second after hot streaks of agony lit his arm all the way to the shoulder. He screamed and dropped to his knees, clutching his broken hand. He looked down at it, his fingers crumpled, white bone jutting from two of his knuckles.

  Luckily, dragonborn healed quickly. But they felt pain all the same. He wouldn’t be able to use his hand for at least a few hours. He looked up at the place on the glass where he had struck his blow. A smudge of blood streaked the glass, but other than that he hadn’t even made the tiniest mark.

  Gods be damned, he thought. What the hell was this place, filled with strange machines and glass that wasn’t glass? Then, as he crouched, sucking in big gulps of air and trying to calm himself, he saw it.

  There, on the base of the tube near the floor, was a button.

  If this is all that needed to be done to open it, I should impale myself upon the spear for my stupidity.

  But of course, as he reached out with his good hand and pushed the shiny gold button, the glass parted open with a hiss.

  The gods may smile upon the courageous, he thought. But surely they saved some of their favor for those who were not complete idiots as well.

  Vander slowly got to his feet, tucking his wounded hand against his stomach. The inside of the shaft smelled like a lightning strike upon the open sea, a mixture of
burning ozone and salty ocean air. The trident gleamed brighter than ever.

  He reached out with his left hand and grasped it in the center, feeling a powerful spark as his palm wrapped around the metal. He lifted it from its pedestal and brought it out into the open air, its surface gleaming from within with its own energy. He could feel the power inside it. This was truly a weapon a god might wield, and now it belonged to him.

  The walls changed their hue, darkening into an angry shade of red. A loud klaxon began to sound, and a stilted female voice began to speak in a language he did not understand.

  Kala vi, savroth torna feelis, she said, her voice unnaturally calm.

  He did not need to be reminded of the warning Brynn had read on the tube. He did not know what she was saying, but it was likely telling him to flee the place.

  Vander hefted the spear and turned, running for the tunnel that led out. He wasn’t sure how much time he had, but why would those who hid the trident here not give him enough to exit? Even so, as he ran, he felt a strange sensation, the metal floor beneath him shifting, becoming as liquid.

  He felt as if he were running on ice, and nearly slipped twice as he ran back the way he had come. He slowed slightly to keep his footing, cursing whoever had made this place.

  His arm throbbed with pain. The alarm blared in his ears. And the dark red light that now filled the chamber made it difficult to see. Perhaps he was not meant to leave this place. Perhaps this was where Vander of the Tanglevine clan was to take his last breath.

  As he ran for the hallway, the walls themselves seemed to be growing closer, collapsing in on themselves.

  He reached the tunnel and ducked inside, relieved to be out of the chamber and heading up top. The sound of the alarm faded behind him as he ran up the slope, now on firmer ground. But another sound, even more alarming than the alarm, made the hair on the back of his neck bristle.

  He heard metal crumpling, folding in on itself. Though he did not want to turn around and look behind him, he knew what he would see. This entire place was collapsing.

  That is certainly one way to make sure no one finds it, he thought. Though again, he felt a pang of regret for Brynn. He knew her fellow scholars ridiculed her, not believing her for proclaiming the existence of Xandakar. And this place was ironclad proof. Rather, it would have been.